Lemon Law Rights
Know Your Lemon Law Rights
When it comes to your Lemon rights, they are generally are defined by each state’s individual law as well as the written warranty that can be found inside each vehicle owner's manual. These rights are usually higher than what the manufacturer or dealer will admit to when you buy your car, so it would help you to check your state’s particular laws before getting a car.
Most of these laws that you will come across will include the Lemon Law if it applies, breach of warranty, unfair trade practices (i.e. damages for failing to repair the vehicle properly) and buyer fraud damages if the car was purchased under deceptive practices by the dealer. Each individual case has different facts about them and because of this the recovery you may be entitled to will certainly vary quite a bit.
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In order for you to learn what your legal rights are for your specific case, you would serve yourself better to contact a lawyer.
Lawyers who deal with lemon laws act a lot like a detective in that these lawyers first task when they are retained is to reconstruct the entire history of your car, from the date of production to the time the case is opened. These lawyers will help you to determine:
- whether the vehicle was damaged at the time of delivery;
- if the financing paperwork can prove that there was an obvious fraud or deception committed against you;
- whether repairs were attempted by the dealer beforehand to cover up any defects;
- the time actually spent for each repair;
- the amount of money that was paid by the manufacturer for warranty repairs;
- whether that model has any known defects that the dealers knew about;
- Whether there are any actual service file notes that will reveal any unresolved, undisclosed safety concerns and other inquiries.
What About Buyer Responsibility? Just because there have been a reasonable number of attempts to fix a defect in a car does not automatically make a consumer automatically eligible for a refund or replacement vehicle. Actually, you must notify the manufacturer or authorized dealer
of the problem during the warranty period or within a year after
you get the car as I mentioned above. |
If the manufacturer of the car has an informal dispute settlement program in place, and most of them do by the way, the consumer must first attempt to resolve the complaint through this program before taking any other means.
If you are still unsatisfied after taking these steps, you should contact an attorney or file a complaint with the Attorney General's Office immediately.
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